Portsmouth firm helping NJ recover

PORTSMOUTH -- Structural engineers from Summit Engineering in Portsmouth have been traveling to the New Jersey shore to assess damage from Hurricane Sandy.

They are taking part in the continuing cleanup and recovery following the Oct. 29 storm. Summit’s structural engineering team is helping to evaluate homes and determine whether damage was caused by wind or flooding.

Bob Champagne, co-owner of Summit, just returned from his second trip to New Jersey where they’ve been assessing private homes on barrier islands.

The amount of damage is striking.

“The level of damage is incredible. It’s tough to believe how much damage there actually is,” said Champagne. “It varies greatly. On the barrier island homes were completely devastated ... where the ocean breached. Many homes have water damage.”

The difference is important in the case of hurricane damage because although wind damage is covered by most home insurance, flood damage is not. Homeowners in regions not typically affected by hurricanes, such as the Northeast, may not have had flood insurance.

Summit was contracted by Root Cause Consulting, a Florida consulting engineering company. Root Cause was hired by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the federal authority that provides flood insurance.

Summit will complete written reports with photographs for submittal to Root Cause and ultimately NFIP.

The Seacoast engineers have been performing visual inspection walk-throughs, including attics and crawlspaces.

Champagne said the homes the firm has dealt with have been an equal mix of second homes and year-round dwellings. He has heard harrowing tales from residents of the storm.

One retired teacher Champagne talked to rode it out in his home and was lucky the floor of his house was just above flood waters. But the man’s car was ruined and his neighbors homes were swept away.

Many of the homes in the area were older and not in compliance with coastal zone construction guidelines requiring finished floors be above the area’s base flood elevation, as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

This is a lesson for building on the Seacoast, said Champagne. His experience also has reinforced the need to heed evacuation warnings, he said.

Summit engineers plan another trip to the Jersey shore as well as New York to do more Sandy assessments in a few weeks.

“We are glad that we’re able to assist in the evaluation of the hurricane damage,” said Champagne in a press release, “and we hope that our assessments of these homes can contribute to the recovery from Sandy and help the homeowners of the Jersey Shore start to rebuild.”

Located in Portsmouth, Summit Engineering provides structural design, construction administration and inspection services on a variety of project types throughout the East Coast, including assessing structural damage caused by storms. Visit www.summitengineeringinc.com for more information.